Coconut is considered to be a fruit and a seed, so it could also fall under the fruit category. This is a fruit unlike others, in that we might use the milk for fermentation purposes but I'm not an expert on coconuts. I would go with Cat 20 or 21.

Yes, coconut. I toasted some flaked coconut until golden brown and then put it in a mesh bag and added to secondary for about a week. I am going to be sending it out on Monday for a comp and was not sure what category to enter it in.

Coconuts aren't neither botanical nuts nor like what people think of when they say nut (such as almonds or peanuts which are not botanical nuts either), so I think the guidelines could be clearer on coconut, since the question comes up so much.

The way I think about it is that in category 20 people expect things that are commonly considered fruits and I don't think coconut is in that category so it should go in 21. I would make the same argument for tomatoes.

I don't see how to pull that recipe from the archive (is it full-text and I'm missing the link?), though I see recipes on the web that claim to be this one. My library's databases don't include Zymurgy or I'd have tried that way.

About 12-13 years ago, a toasted coconut porter took the NHC. I'll see if I can find out what category it was. Maybe Gordon would know.

I judged Fujiura-san's mild (twice including BOS, where it won) this summer in Japan. Really good damn mild. I looked online and the same recipe shows up everywhere including on the green board where someone pasted verbatim text from an email, so it seems legit. He is legendary in Japan for this beer. Apparently he got a bit of a hand slap when Zymurgy published that he won (homebrewing is not legal in Japan if the alcohol is greater than 1%, it is pretty well decriminalized though).

Back to the point. I would argue under the 1998 guidelines that coconut beers should go in fruit beer. It would be interesting to know where this was entered.

Under the 2008 guidelines, the SHV category specifically says nut based beers go there. I think that is vague, but I know Gordon believes (because he said so on the BJCP board) that should include coconut so I believe that was the intent. The coconut question comes up A LOT and I think it would be a good idea to clarify in the next revision.

21a is the right place. I'll clarify in the next set of guidelines. The intent of fruit vs SHV beers is to keep to the culinary interpretation of the ingredient not the botanical one. If (God help us) you made a tomato beer, it would be entered in 21a not 20. Coconut tastes more like macadamia nuts and cashews than it does raspberries and cherries. So it goes in 21. I thought 'nut' was good enough, but apparently not. That was the intent, though.